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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PATIE, prop.n. Also paitie, patey, peatie, pettie. Sc. hypocoristic forms of Peter or Patrick (Sc. 1825 Jam.). [′pete]

1. In reference to St. Peter. Phr. Patie's altarage penny (see quot.).Per. 1760 Stat. Acc.² X. 82:
St. Peter was the tutelar saint of this corporation (Fleshers). In former times they had an altar before their seat in the Old Church illuminated with wax lights. For supporting this altar a tax was laid on all slaughtered cattle, which was usually called Patie's altarage penny. The tax was regularly exacted till 1760.

2. The puffin, Fratercula arctica (Ayr. 1965). Also in combs. peatie cock, patey wek, id. For -wek cf. kittywake s.v. Kittie, n.¹, 5. (10).Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 157:
He takes a voyage to the Craig of Ailsa, bringing home a precious load of sea fowls, which, he calls “Ailsa cocks, Ketty wakes, petties, and Solon geese.”Ayr. 1895 R. Lawson Ailsa Craig 55:
Thou quaint wee bird of Ailsa Rock, Whom natives call a Peatie Cock, But better known 'mong ither folk As a puffin.Ayr. 1898 Chambers's Jnl. (29 Jan.) 129, 130:
A puffin — or patey, as they call them in these parts — every year built its nest upon me. . . . We bade adieu to our good old home at Ailsa, with its pateyweks, its kittiwakes, its gulls, solan geese, and wild goats.

3. Combs. patie bowie, the stick used by cobblers (see Lang, adj., 6. (52) and Peter, n., 2.), of obscure orig.; appar. a jocular alteration of †Eng. petty boy in the same sense, poss. ad. Fr. petit bois, a glazing-bar of a window, which is somewhat sim. in shape; patie stobie, the stickleback (Per.⁴ 1965). See Stob.Per. 1896 D. Kippen Crieff (Ser. 2) 126:
He [Auld Nick] splewed [sic] up patie bowie (the lang stick) and a lang sharping stane.

4. A club for killing salmon (Kcd., Ayr. 1965), by a jocular association of the synonymous Priest with Pat, an Irishman.